Carlos Jalali

Sourcing the News: Comparing Source Use and Media Framing of the 2009 European Parliamentary Elections

The relationship between journalists and their sources has been described as an interdependent relationship where each part needs the other. For political actors, this relationship is particularly important during election campaigns, when their need to reach voters through the media is even more urgent than usual. This is particularly true with respect to European Parliamentary election campaigns, as these are often less salient and as peoples need for orientation is greater than in national elections. However, there is only limited cross-national research on the medias use of news sources and whether there are associations between the use of news sources and media framing. This holds true for research on election campaigns in general and on European Parliamentary election campaigns in particular. Against this background, this study investigates cross-national differences and similarities in the medias use of news sources in their coverage of the 2009 European Parliamentary election campaigns and the extent to which the use of news sources is associated with the medias framing of politics and the EU. The study draws upon a quantitative content analysis of the media coverage in twelve countries. Findings suggest that there are both important similarities and differences across countries with respect to the use of news sources and that there are cases when the use of news sources is related to the framing of politics and the EU.

The professionals speak: Practitioners’ perspectives on professional election campaigning:

Faced with some fundamental changes in the socio-cultural, political and media environment, political parties in post-industrialized democracies have started to initiate substantial transformations of both their organizational structures and communicative practices. Those innovations, described as professionalization, become most obvious during election campaigns. In recent times, the number of empirical studies measuring the degree of political parties’ campaign professionalism has grown. They have relied on a broad spectrum of indicators derived from theory which have not been tested for their validity. For the first time, we put these indicators to a ‘reality check’ by asking top-ranked party secretaries and campaign managers in 12 European countries to offer their perceptions of professional election campaigning. Furthermore, we investigate whether any differences in understanding professionalism among party campaign practitioners can be explained by macro (country) and meso (party) factors. By and large, our results confirm the validity of most indicators applied in empirical studies on campaign professionalism so far. There are some party- and country-related differences in assessing campaign professionalism too, but the influence of most factors on practitioners’ evaluations is weak. Therefore, we conclude that largely there is a far-reaching European Union-wide common understanding of professional election campaigning.

The 2011 Portuguese Presidential Elections: Incumbency Advantage in Semi-presidentialism?

The 2011 Portuguese presidential election resulted in a comfortable victory for the incumbent president, Cavaco Silva, an outcome consistent with the notion of substantial incumbency advantages. However, as this article demonstrates, the Portuguese case is part of a broader pattern, with semi-presidentialism in post-war Western Europe generating a considerable pro-incumbency bias in presidential elections. Using the Portuguese elections as a case study, it is found that this advantage derives not only from the direct benefits of holding office, but also from an indirect effect of incumbency on the quality of challengers. In particular, the average quality of challengers is significantly lower in elections with an incumbent than in open-seat contests.

Givers and takers Parties, state resources and civil society in Portugal

This article assesses the relationship between parties and civil society in Portugal between 1999 and 2009, examining the mediating role of parties in patterns of state funding to civil society organizations. We find evidence of a relationship between parties and organized civil society – albeit an instrumental one, largely based on reward-motivated linkages. The analysis of state grants indicates that parties act as brokers between the state and civil society groups, instrumentally using patronage resources. Three distinct dimensions of party influence on funding emerge. The first pertains to party organization: our evidence is consistent with the use of state funding to shore up party organizations and compensate for weak social roots. Second, electoral gains: funding is particularly visible around election periods, with legislative elections significantly more relevant than others. Third, the potential role of ideology: the ideological position of governing parties is also a significant predictor of civil society funding.

For Whom the Bailout Tolls? The Implications of the 2013 Local Elections for the Portuguese Party System

Local elections have generally provided useful pointers for overall party system patterns in Portugal. The 2013 local elections are of additional interest because they were the first nationwide elections in Portugal since the substantive start of the countrys economic adjustment programme, initiated in mid 2011. As such, they also constitute the first electoral milestone by which to assess the Portuguese party system in a bailout context. Unlike recent bailout elections in Ireland and Greece, these local elections did not generate a major departure from the prevailing patterns of the Portuguese party system. However, we find some evidence of a challenge to the party system, with a decline in the combined share of the main parties, especially when facing independent candidates.

The Woes of Being in Opposition: The PSD since 1995*

This article examines the evolution of the Portuguese Partido Social Democrata (Social Democratic Party, PSD) since 1995. The analysis centres on four key dimensions: patterns of change in party values and programmes; party organization, resources and intra-party dynamics; the partys competitive strategies; and the evolution in the partys electoral campaigning. Overall, the past decade highlights the importance of power for party functioning in the PSD, the prolonged absence from power in the last decade highlighting some previously obscured patterns of party functioning.

The Trials of a Socialist Government: Right-Wing Victories in Local and Presidential Elections in Portugal, 2005–2006

The October 2005 local elections and January 2006 presidential election were both marked by defeats for the Socialist Party, which mere months earlier had obtained its first parliamentary majority since democratization. While in both instances the defeats cannot be dissociated from poor strategic choices by the Socialists, they also suggest a shortening of the political cycle in Portugal, with remarkably short honeymoon periods for national governments. At the same time, the victory of a centre-right candidate in the presidential election ended the centre-lefts monopoly on the presidency since democratization. As such, it completes the alternation between the main parties in the political system of democratic Portugal.

The President is Not a Passenger

A cursory glance at the semi-presidential dimension of Portuguese politics suggests stability. Since democratization, in the aftermath of the April 1974 “carnation revolution,” Portugal has had four elected presidents. The first three served two full five-year terms, with high levels of public approval. The fourth incumbent was elected in 2006, and his presidency (in mid-2009) resembled that of his predecessors, with approval ratings that maintained the president as the most popular and best-regarded figure in Portuguese politics.

A Resurgent Presidency? Portuguese Semi-Presidentialism and the 2016 Elections

Abstract This article analyses the Portuguese presidential elections of January 2016, setting these within the backdrop of recent semi-presidential practice in Portugal. The election took place in the context of an apparent hollowing of the presidency, a pattern that potentially reflects the bailout that marked most of the second term of the outgoing president, Cavaco Silva. This pattern also helps explain the second-order nature of this presidential election. Despite potentially being an ‘open’ election – in that the incumbent had reached term limits – the election was characterised by low citizen mobilisation, low partisan involvement and low competitiveness. The initial two months of the newly elected president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, suggests he is seeking to invert this hollowing pattern by mobilising popular support behind the presidency.

Extremismus in Portugal

Je nach Definition von politischem Extremismus waren fur den portugiesischen Fall verschiedene Aussagen zutreffend, die von einer grosen bis hin zu einer minimalen Beteiligung extremistischer Gruppen am politischen Geschehen reichen. Wie eine Reihe von Autoren zeigt, sind die Kriterien zur Bestimmung extremistischer Parteien keinesfalls einheitlich und in hohem Mase durch den jeweiligen politischen Kontext bedingt. Wenn Roger Scruton in seinem Vorwort zur Definition des Konzepts „Extremismus“ diesen als „unklaren Terminus“ bezeichnet, so befinden Paul Horton , Gerald Leslie und Richard Larson nachdrucklich, dass keine Definition des politischen Extremismus zufriedenstellend sei. Auch Albert Breton , Gian luigi Galeotti, Pierre Salmon und Ronald Wintrobe stellen einen Mangel an Konsens uber die Definition von Extremismus fest. Sie identifizieren funf unterschiedliche Per spektiven, aus denen politischer Extremismus betrachtet wird: Lokalisierung im politischen Spektrum; Art der Behandlung politischer Werte und Ansichten (kompromisslos und unflexibel); Bandbreite politischer Wahlmoglichkeiten; Bevorzugung bestimmter Themen; Wahl des Mittels zur Erreichung politischer Ziele. Einige dieser funf Dimensionen finden sich in Scrutons Definition des politischen Extremismus wieder: „1. Taking a political idea to its limits, regardless of ‚unfortunate‘ repercussions, impracticalities, arguments and feelings to the contrary, and with the intention not only to confront, but also to eliminate opposition. 2. Intolerance towards all views other than one’s own. 3. Adoption of means to political ends which show disregard for the life, liberty, and human rights of others.“ Folgt man Pia Knigge, so zeigt sich, dass die beiden dominanten Herangehensweisen an das Studium des Extremismus auf der Ebene des Individuums und auf derjenigen der Parteien liegen. Erstere konzentriert sich auf die Glaubenssysteme einzelner Personen, letztere auf die Identifizierung von Parteien, die als extremistisch innerhalb eines spezifischen Parteiensystems definiert werden konnen.